Hazardous Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste: Spent Catalysts from Dual-Purpose Petroleum Hydroprocessing Reactors

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today is providing the public an opportunity to comment on Agency memoranda that explain how current RCRA regulations apply to spent catalyst wastes removed from dual purpose hydroprocessing reactors and generated at petroleum refining facilities. The regulations addressed in these memoranda were promulgated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) on August 6, 1998 (63 FR 42110) and among other things, listed spent hydrotreating catalysts (K171) and spent hydrorefining catalysts (K172) as hazardous wastes. Subsequent to that final rule and in response to inquiries from handlers of certain spent petroleum hydroprocessing catalysts, EPA issued two memoranda explaining that spent catalysts from dual purpose petroleum hydroprocessing reactors fall within the scope of the final listing determinations for K171 and K172. Today the Agency is notifying the public of the opportunity to comment on these previously issued memoranda.